How many background apps can you run?

[damoskee]

Hi folks,

I have a 4S, and since the upgrade to iOS7, the planned obsolescence is driving me crazy. With 512MB RAM, the 4S can generally only have 2 apps in memory at the same time, sometimes not even that.

Examples
- I'm ordering a gift online on Safari; I switch to Contacts to get the recipient's address, then get a message and switch to Messages; I switch back to safari, and it has quit and reloaded the page with empty fields
- I'm logging onto a website; switch to 1Password to get the password; switch back, and again, the form has quit and reloaded
- I'm running with Spotify and RunKeeper; I switch to Facebook to post a photo, go back running - and then find out that RunKeeper has been quit in the background due to lack of memory

I spoke to a developer who had noticed that with iOS7, Apple cache a lot more graphics data for transitions and transparencies - his app went from using 1MB in iOS6 to 7MB in iOS7. Based on that, I can understand why I can no longer run many apps in the background. I didn't upgrade my iPad 2's to iOS7, and they're still fine, even with upgraded apps.

So.... it seems it's time to upgrade to a 5S, or even maybe a 5c/5 (same RAM as 5S).

The question is - how many apps can reside in memory now? I assume that with the 1GB vs 512MB, and taking away the OS overhead, there's maybe 2.5-3.5x as much memory available to apps?

So - has anyone tried this? Could you run, say: Safari, Contacts, Spotify, 1Password, Facebook - and have them all in memory at the same time (so you're still in the same spot when you switch back)?

I'm cautious that if I buy a 5S now, then the 6 will come out with 2GB RAM, and again, the 5S will suffer the same problem within 18 months.

Cheers,


D

 

[willerz2]

iOS takes anywhere from 100-300MB of RAM to sustain, and that's just the iOS alone. It does not include apps running and such. On the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, if you clean out your RAM completely (after a reboot for clean devices, or reboot/respring for jailbroken devices), you'll cap at 279MB of your 512MB. Because of the new APIs presented in almost every iOS threshold upgrade.

Depending on the app, I've been able to run 5-7 cached apps simultaneously through cache without having it re-cache, but they were apps that did not demand much RAM. 1GB after iOS sustainability roughly leaves you with about 700 or so MB of RAM left, which is quite a bit.

 

[damoskee]

Thanks! I'm not jailbroken (and on 7), so can't check, but yeah - I could get 5 or so on iOS6, so I guess 2 is the new norm on iOS7.

 

[shawn744]

wow, i didn't know that it was that bad...wth, they should have thought of something like that during their ios 7 rollout...with the 5S i've never really closed an app, they all just stay in the multitasking area, and whether or not they go dormant after a while, i must say that i can come and go into several apps as i please and nothing will happen..all my data will be there and full functionality will stay constant throughout the usage.